Japan

TOKYO — Security policymakers in Japan and the U.S. are privately voicing concern about the absence of U.S. aircraft carriers from East Asian waters for four months next year. Budget restrictions in the U.S. and turmoil in the Middle East is putting pressure on the fleet’s capability and will mean not a single aircraft carrier […]

In Tokyo on April 6, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel made a not-so-subtle reference to China’s aggressive behavior in the disputed Senkaku Islands, warning that countries cannot “redefine boundaries and violate territorial integrity and sovereignty of nations by force, coercion or intimidation,” whether that be “small islands in the Pacific or la…

Japan will strike any North Korean ballistic missile that threatens to hit Japan in the coming weeks after Pyongyang recently fired medium-range missiles, a government source said on Saturday. Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera issued the order, which took effect on Thursday and runs through April 25, the day that marks the founding of North Korea’s army…

China said Friday it has begun issuing warnings to foreign military planes entering its self-declared air defense zone over the East China Sea amid heightened tensions with its neighbors, especially Japan. Bitter rhetoric between the neighbors has spiked since Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a late-December visit to a war shrine in Tokyo that…

China sent fighter jets and an early warning aircraft into its newly declared air defence zone, state media said Friday, as Japan and South Korea stated they had defied the zone with military overflights. The Chinese planes had conducted normal air patrols on Thursday as “a defensive measure and in line with international common practices,” said Shen Ji…

China has demarcated an “air-defence identification zone” over an area of the East China Sea, covering islands that are also claimed by Japan. China’s defence ministry said aircraft entering the zone must obey its rules or face “emergency defensive measures”. The islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, are a source of rising tension betwee…

A number of European nations have formed a “drone club,” which aims to develop UAVs that can compete with American and Israeli drones. The Chinese Wing Loong drone, which bears some resemblance to the American Predator drone, leading some analysts to conclude that Chinese espionage may have played a role in its development.

Japanese fighter planes scrambled, and Tokyo foreign policy-makers scratched their heads in confusion, after two huge Russian bombers provocatively skirted Japan’s airspace for the second time in as many days Sunday, barely two weeks after top Russian and Japanese officials had finished a round of unprecedented negotiations aimed at boosting military a…

Japan scrambled fighter jets on Thursday after a Chinese government plane entered what Japan considers its airspace over disputed islets in the East China Sea, escalating tension between Asia's two biggest economies.Japan protested to China over the incident but China brushed the complaint off saying the flight by the Chinese aircraft was "complet…

Japan's defence minister on Friday warned Tokyo could send troops to a chain of East China Sea islands at the centre of a territorial row with China if the simmering dispute escalated.Satoshi Morimoto said Tokyo's position had not changed, but confirmed that it would use force to defend the islands known as Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chines…